· March, 2010

Stories about Western Europe from March, 2010

Sweden: Parliament Recognizes the Assyrian Genocide

The Swedish Parliament has recognized as genocide the massacres that took place within the Ottoman Empire from 1913 to 1920 against the Armenian, Assyrian and Pontic Greek population - an episode that is also referred to as "Seyfo" by the Assyrian Diaspora. Bloggers react to this development in this post.

The Virtual Choir: Technology, Collaboration and Music

  27 March 2010

Composer Eric Whitacre , after seeing a Youtube video of a young soprano singing his song "Sleep" wondered: What if he could get people, regardless of where they were in the world, to record themselves signing all the other parts of his a capella choir piece? So he did, and following, you will be able to see the various results of this great experiment of online collaboration with the Virtual Choir.

France : Literary blogs and Paris Book Fair

  26 March 2010

At the Paris Salon du Livre – France's biggest annual book fair, the website atelier des médias (media workshops) hosted by Radio France Internationale (RFI) “flips through the literary blogs of a few guests of the media workshops”: Gangoueus LaRéus at Chez Gangeous, Liss Kihindou at Liss dans la vallée...

France/Spain: Blog censorship

  26 March 2010

The Quemando Iglesias [Burning Churches] blog reports [es] on the forced shut down of the zer egin duzue jonekin [What they did to Jon?], a blog that had gathered support for the investigation of the death of the ETA militant Jon Anza, supposedly in the hands of the Spanish State Security Forces in...

France: What would you do in The Game of Death?

  25 March 2010

A controversial French documentary sparked worldwide scandal on March 17 by televising a fake game show in which contestants were willingly led to torture others. Bloggers in France discuss the morals and meaning.

Spain: MyWorld Video Winner tackles unemployment

  23 March 2010

The BBC's video contest My World Video has come to a close, and from the hundreds of submitted entries, they've selected their winner:  Frederico Teixeira of Samapayo in Spain who made a 2 minute video on the unemployment situation in his country. The simple video shows his reflection in a...

E.U.: Debate Over the Euro

  21 March 2010

Is the euro dead or dying? economist and blogger Dominique Thiébaut asks [Fr] on his blog, Changes et Matières Premières. He weighs the odds a “sarkofranc” or “markel” might succeed the European currency, currently at the mercy of some members countries’ financial straits as well as international speculators.

Best of Blogs Awards: Don't forget to vote!

  21 March 2010

The international Best of Blogs Awards, organized by Deutsche Welle, have entered the final voting phase. You may now vote online until April 14, 2010, for your favorite blog(s) in eleven languages and various categories, including freedom of expression and climate change.

Japan: Brussels sprout in Kyoto

  21 March 2010

Photographer and blogger Sigrid, author of one of the most popular Italian gourmet blogs, is in Kyoto. Wonderful pictures of the city and of the delicatessen she has, together with mouth-watering Japanese recipes for the Cavoletto di Bruxelles‘ fans.

Bosnia: Gay Dutch Soldiers

  19 March 2010

Kirk Johnson of Americans For Bosnia reacts to retired NATO commander John Sheehan's homophobic comment on the Dutch troops’ performance in Bosnia in 1995: “Regarding the Srebrenica Genocide; there are many things for which we can hold the Dutch military at fault, but allowing gay Dutch citizens to serve their...

Netherlands: Reaction to US general's gay theory of Srebrenica

  19 March 2010

Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen tweeted [nl] in reaction to a claim by a retired US general that “gay soldiers contributed to the Bosnian massacre” in Srebrenica in 1995: “Extremely weird statement about Srebrenica. I fear this has more to do with the discussion in the US about homosexuality in...

UK: Foreign Office on Ukraine and Belarus

  19 March 2010

Leigh Turner, UK Ambassador to Ukraine, writes about London's “intense interest in what's going on in Ukraine.” Belarus Digest reports that UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband (whose blog is here) “singled out Belarus in his introduction to the Foreign Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights 2009.”

France: Blogtrotters video blog sheds light on global issues

  15 March 2010

French collaborative video-blog (Fr) Blogtrotters travels to conflict zones, dictatorships and other hot spots around the world, from Sub-Saharan Africa to Central and Eastern Asia to the Pacific Ocean, and its climate refugees. (English version here).  Coming soon, a report on Burma. The blog was co-founded by Tristan Mendès-France, the...